THE EVENING AFTER THEY KILLED US

THE EVENING AFTER THEY KILLED US

WRITTEN BY FIRSTCLASSNEWSLINE

When sick people hawk hate and death, kill innocent people and destroy what they've spent their lifetime building and yet nothing is done by the state to bring these animals to book then the obvious is that they'll commit the same act tomorrow; kill, more, rape more and destroy more. The Nigerian state has shown a strong disinclination to contend with those mad enough to test the will of the state only if that test has a religious color on it. It flies against what happened in Odi and Zaki Biam when the might of the state was sadistically thrown at the people of these two communities after they were alleged to have killed some two dozen soldiers. Yet when people kill in hundreds and thousands in the name of God or in the name of tribe and tongue, the state suddenly goes into its catacomb.

The madness that erupted in the northern part of Nigeria after the decisive defeat of Major-General Muhammadu Buhari in the April 16 presidential election was perhaps the most audacious defiance of the state in recent times. Yet the state failed once again to live up to its social contract to protect its weak and heavy-laden. Rather pampering words of reconciliation, platitudes and shibboleths are being bandied about by the state in order to run away from its responsibility to tackle those who visited fire and brimstone on its innocent citizens whose only crime is that they are either Christians, southerners or sympathise with the PDP

For those of us who live in the north and know it pretty well, the violence that trailed the victory of Goodluck Jonathan at the polls was very much expected. It wasn't a prophecy foretold but we have become all too used to the unyielding pattern of stealing, killing and destroying that is visited on the ethnic and religious minorities up-country. As a friend of mine and a long time resident of Kano noted after successfully fleeing a murderous mob at Otoro and finding safety in the Sabon-Gari quarters, "these people kill over everything! When they win an election, they kill! When they lose an election they kill! When America has a problem with Sudan, they kill! When Israel defends herself against terrorism, they kill! What kind of people are these?" Of course he wasn't talking about the vast majority of the people of the north who seek for and thrive in peace.

If the state claims failure at predicting the mayhem and massacre that followed the presidential elections, I think they will be economical with the truth. The signs were obvious. They sky was clear. It was palpable in the seething blistering geyser of hot words and threats by General Buhari and his cohorts which were a call to arms in the minds of the Buhari adherents. At all his campaign stops, the retired Head of state never failed to encourage his horde of devotees who thronged every campaign venue to "protect their votes" and "resist every attempt to steal their votes." All these phrases were mere euphemisms for "Do not accept any result that does not declare me winner." The CPC' general secretary, the acerbic and ever angry Buba Galadima raucously declared to Nigerians on national television a few days before the national assembly elections that his party would not accept any result that did not give victory to General Buhari. The reason for that decision according to Galadima was that "politics is a game of numbers." What this implied was that since Buhari who defined himself albeit surreptitiously as a northern candidate was going against a southerner in the person of Goodluck Jonathan, then he was certain to win since he believed that Nigerians should vote along ethnic lines.

These calls to arms did not just come from politicians. Saharareporters and the BBC Hausa service also must account for the lives lost and the emotional scars that will not heal. Saharareporters naked partisanship through its fallacious reports was most nauseating and instructive on how not to be an activist media. Seriously what is then the difference between Saharareporters and elendureports? Which if my memory serves me well is the raison d'être for the founding of Saharareporters. During the national assembly elections, Saharareporters claimed falsely and indeed maliciously that Lawrence Onoja won the Benue South senatorial elections and that David Mark was attempting to rig even when collation had not ended. Of course David Mark won fairly but till today I know a few Onoja supporters who swear that their candidate was denied his due. When asked to provide concrete evidence, they'll say Saharareporters said so!

Prior to and during the presidential elections, Saharareporters always posted strange citing and unproven reports of rigging by PDP all aimed at mobilizing support for General Buhari and stirring hatred towards the PDP and its presidential candidate. This puerile attempt at influencing the outcome of the elections of course failed woefully as Nigerians rejected the purveyors of hate. I will not bother talking about the BBC Hausa service because for long that xenophobic service and its xenophobic presenters and reporters have never hidden where they stand in Nigerian politics.

Despite what Buhari, Galadima and Saharareporters might say most Nigerians know deep in their hearts that Jonathan won this presidential election. He won it because he was the better candidate in temperament, in education, in experience and of course by his humility he won the hearts of Nigerians across the board

So why did Buhari lose? He did not lose because the election was rigged like him and his enthusiasts love to claim. As far as I am concerned, the claim of rigging by the CPC against the PDP is just an excuse by Buhari' handlers to justify his understandable loss before his impenetrable supporters who saw no other bottom-line but guaranteed victory which they had been assured at all campaign rallies up-country.

Buhari lost fair and square and despite what Saharareporters and Buhari', Bakare, Tony Momoh, Odumakin and their cohorts would continue to declare Buhari lost for two reasons; his message and his audience.

Buhari' message throughout his campaign was an undemanding salad of ‘I'll fight corruption‘and ‘national security.' An overwhelming number of his supporters were uninterested in his message; all they wanted was for Buhari to become Head of State once again so that he could "deal with those thieves." I heard this retort of dealing with thieves over and over again from his adherents and anytime I or any other rational person dared to interrogate whether leadership of the second largest economy in Africa had been reduced to "dealing with thieves" we were of course defined as national heretics and societal apostates.

The flotsam and jetsam artisans, cobblers, market traders and "going" riders in the cities of Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Dutse, Gombe, Bauchi et al might have bought the radical Buhari gospel but a good number of Hausa/Fulani Muslims in the villages who till the land and hew the wood listened more to their Emirs and District Heads who in the large majority rejected Buhari' message and adviced these villagers to vote "according to their conscience and not on religious and ethnic grounds" These people no doubt gave Goodluck Jonathan the 25% he so needed across the vast expanse of north-Western and north-eastern Nigeria. The Emirs and District Heads of course paid dearly for their statesmanship as their palaces, residencies and offices were attacked and destroyed.

More importantly Buhari lost as a result of his whole sale rejection by the Middle-Belt nationalities. With the third highest number of voters in the country, the North-Central or Middle-Belt used their votes for Jonathan to send a powerful message to the Muslim North that, years of political marginalisation and decades of religious persecution of the north' ethnic and religious minorities by the majority would not be rewarded by political support. It was a strong message that no doubt shocked the vendors of the "one north" theory

Had the Middle-Belt voted for Buhari, a run-off if not a Buhari victory would have been likely but alas a people repressed, attacked and killed in the name of ethnic and religious conflict showed a big red card to those who saw them only as people to go to only during election time for vote mobilization and people to be maimed at the end of the same election.

I hope the international Criminal Court and its chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo make good their threat to investigate the massacre of innocent Nigerians by goading politicians and provocative media. Then that will at least serve as a warning that the persistent massacre of innocent Nigerians in the north is unacceptable by the civilized world. If the Nigerian government is unable to secure the security and lives of its people as it has visibly shown over the last thirty years, then it probably should cede that occupation to the international community which has shown a better capacity to unmask and prosecute the vendors of hate and death whether in Croatia, Serbia, Sudan or Kenya